


The Community Garden

by rikmhm



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Implied Sexual Content, Marijuana, Recreational Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-12
Updated: 2015-06-11
Packaged: 2018-04-04 00:40:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4120210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rikmhm/pseuds/rikmhm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU in which someone plants weed in the community garden and Regina harvests it because Daniel taught her how. Starts as sexual tension, ends in Swan Queen dating.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Regina wiped the sweat from her brow with the wrist of her gardening glove. She had just finished pulling all of the weeds from the community garden. Now, she only had to collect the harvestable items for the monthly farmers market that would take place tomorrow. 

“I can’t believe I’m doing this alone again. Emma promised she would make it this time. I swear she is paying criminals to get her out of tending this garden.”  
Regina placed a few handfuls of tomatoes into her basket, picked a row of green beans, and collected various colored peppers before she came to a patch of familiar looking leaves. “Haven’t seen this stuff in a while.” She pulled up the plants by the stalk and placed them in her baskets. She had watched Daniel tend this kind of plant near the stables, so she knew when it was ready to be harvested. Having picked as much as was ready, Regina loaded the baskets into David’s truck, which he had let her borrow in order to keep her car clean. She fired up the old engine and started toward her house. She would have to store the goods in her garage so the animals wouldn’t get to it. The raccoons in Storybrooke could be especially vicious at night. 

When she got home, she unloaded the vegetables into her garage and carried the tall stalks into her kitchen. She remembered Daniel hanging them up in the stables when her parents were away. “They have to dry properly or no one will buy the leaves for me.” Daniel told her the first time she walked in on the process. 

“But won’t the leaves taste disgusting if they are all dried out? I think they would be more succulent if left alone.” Regina was confused. Daniel laughed. 

“My dear,” he said as he took her hand. “They don’t buy it to eat. They buy it to smoke.” 

“Oh. So it’s like a tobacco pipe.” Regina was starting to understand.

“Yes. In fact, you can smoke this out of a tobacco pipe. Or you can roll it into paper. You can even bake it into food if you have an abundance of free time.” Daniel decided to stop there.

“What a versatile plant! I can’t believe I’ve never known about it before.” Regina was proud of Daniel for growing such tall, beautiful plants. He truly had a green thumb. She knew that her mother was wrong about him all along. She would see. The idea hit her all at once. “We should show my mother your plants!” 

“NO!” Daniel responded urgently. “I mean. Your mother would be displeased that I am using her land to cultivate something that only I profit from. She would at the least take my wages from me and at the most, kill me.” 

“Oh, right. Well, we can’t have that.” Regina saw that Daniel was stringing up the stalks in the stables. 

“When the wind blows through, it will dry the plants. Then I’ll teach you what to do next.” Daniel said as he climbed up the ladder. “Now hand me those stalks, my darling. I’m so glad you’re here to help.” Regina smiled at Daniel, grateful for the opportunity.


	2. Chapter 2

After hanging the plants throughout her kitchen, Regina brought the two fans that she owned into the room and pointed them toward the plants. Yes, electricity was one of her favorite things about this land. As she stood back and admired her work, the doorbell rang. Emma didn’t even wait for Regina to answer the door before she barged in.

“Miss Swan! I know we’re…friends…now, but I’d still appreciate if you’d allow me to let you into my home!” Regina’s voice tripped over the word “friends”. She really was trying to get along with Emma, even if Emma made it difficult. They had been through a lot together, and Emma had had her back multiple times, even when she hadn’t deserved it.

“Sorry.” Emma didn’t sound sorry. She bounded past Regina to get to the kitchen. “Where are the…OH MY GOD. REGINA, WHAT THE HELL?” Emma was screaming. When Regina got to the kitchen, Emma was standing with her hands on her head. “What is this? Where did you get this?”

“It was in the community garden. You know… the one that was YOUR idea and that you have tended approximately ZERO times? Honestly, that garden is technically my personal garden. No one ever sets foot in it except me.” Regina was brooding.

“Well, I’d say someone else set foot in it. Unless you planted all this weed?” Emma just had to laugh at the situation. If the people of Storybrooke could see this. Mayor Mills with a solid 10 lbs of weed drying in her kitchen.

“These aren’t weeds, Emma. These are a special plant from my realm. People smoke the leaves in pipes like tobacco.” Regina explained matter-of-factly.

_Oh my God. She knows what it is. But she has NO idea what it IS._ Emma couldn’t decide how to handle this situation, so she decided to do what she was so good at: Mess with Regina a little bit.

“And what happens when you smoke this plant? I mean, tobacco is gross. Is this stuff supposed to be better? Or what?” Emma had a much easier time acting than she imagined she would have. All of those years lying to her foster families to their faces were paying off.

Regina looked puzzled. “I have no idea.” She hadn’t even thought about the fact that although she knew how to prepare the plant, she had no clue what to do with it afterward. “All I know is that people liked to buy it in my realm. Maybe we could sell it? Like a fundraiser for the children’s cancer fund at the hospital or to help defray the cost of the school’s annual end of the year party!” Regina looked pleased with herself. 

Emma choked down a laugh. “Is this real life? I’m dreaming, right?”

“Um, no. You’re not. The only thing is we have to wait for this stuff to dry out before we can start taking it off of the stalk. Having electric fans should help. Maybe I can lay it out in the sun tomorrow after the farmers market.” Regina was so full of good ideas today!

“Uh, you better not. I think I learned about this plant somewhere and the fans should dry it better than the sun light. How about you just call me when it’s dry and I’ll come over and help you?” Emma couldn’t believe this was happening, but she was so glad it was. It had been several years since she had smoked and Regina had never smoked it before. She was nearly skipping down the path toward her car. “I’m going to get Regina high.”


	3. Chapter 3

The time passed slowly, but Emma finally received the call that she had been anticipating. She wasted no time in getting to Regina’s house and she even brought along her trusty bowl that she found in her box of belongings from when she first moved from Boston.

The door flew open and Emma came almost running through it. To her surprise, Regina had already gotten through half of the stalks. “You didn’t do all of those while I was on my way over here, did you?” Emma asked in disbelief.

“No,” Regina replied with a small laugh. “That would have been impressive, though. I did try to use magic, but I couldn’t quite make it work effectively.”

“You know…historically…when your magic wasn’t strong enough…” Emma moved the tips of her fingers and a small spark erupted from them.

Regina’s eyes brightened and a genuine smile appeared on her face. “Ours was.”

The two women focused their energies over one plant and then the next, until they had finished.

“Okay, now how do we sell it?” Regina was eager to start the next step.

“Easy, tiger.” Emma hadn’t thought about what they would do with this felony amount of marijuana. She figured she’d have a few hours of picking and packing to consider the options. “Packing…” she pondered aloud. She walked over to her bag and pulled out her bowl. “I think we should sample the product first. You know, so we know what we’re selling to people.”

Regina seemed hesitant. “We won’t know what will happen to us.”

Emma almost wanted to come clean, but she knew Regina would never go along with it if she did. “I’m sure it will be fine. People paid good money for it in your realm, right? And they always came back for more? I’ll go first if it’ll make you feel better.”

“Okay. I trust you.” Regina had come a long way to be able to say those words and hearing them come out made her feel instantly warm.

Emma had packed the bowl and sat down on the couch next to Regina. She lifted the lighter to the bowl, lit it, and inhaled. She blew the smoke toward Regina.

“Excuse you!” Regina slapped Emma’s arm and then her face went from playful to skeptical. “Wait a minute. Where did you get that pipe? And how did you know what to do with it?”

Emma sighed. She would have to tell the truth. At least part of it. “So, we actually have this plant in my realm, as well. This realm, I mean. I just went along with your story because I …” she paused. “When you were explaining it to me, it was just so cute. I couldn’t tell you. You were so proud of yourself.” Regina’s face turned bright red.

“Oh, don’t be embarrassed. It’s fine. Besides, you said you’ve never smoked it, so it’s good thing I know how!” Emma passed the bowl to Regina, who just stared at it lying in her hands. Emma picked it back up and put the mouth piece up to Regina’s lips. “I’m going to light this. Take a very small breath in. Then, I’ll let my finger off of this hole, the carb, and you breathe in a little more. Not too much, though, okay?”

Regina nodded nervously. Emma did just as she said she would, but Regina only made it to the first step before she started coughing. “Too big of a breath. Cough it out, babe. It happens to everyone.” Emma rubbed Regina’s back, knowing that there was nothing that could be done to help her.

A minute later, Regina had calmed down. She had tears streaming down her face from coughing so hard. “That was terrible. Is it always like that?”

Emma had taken more than her fair share of hits while Regina was choking on her first. “No, it’s not usually. But since you’re just learning, it might happen a few more times. Remember how long it took me when you were teaching me magic?” Regina nodded. “You’ll get better at it.”

“I want to try again.” Regina was determined to get this down and slightly angry at Daniel for never teaching her this part of it.

“Okay. I’m gonna try something different this time. It’s called shotgunning. Just breathe in when I blow the smoke your way, okay?” Emma was a little nervous about this, admittedly. The only time her face had even been so close to Regina’s is when they were about to rip each other’s throats out.

Emma took a hit and held it in her lungs. She sat the bowl and lighter on the table and stood with one knee on the couch over Regina. Regina flinched a little as Emma’s hands landed on her neck and face, fingers on either side of her ears. Emma tilted Regina’s hand up and put her lips merely inches from Regina’s. She pursed them lightly and began to blow the smoke out. Regina was entranced. “Gina, inhale.” Emma choked out, still trying to hold in the smoke.

“Right, sorry.” Regina quickly replied and then began to breathe in the exhaled smoke. When Emma had emptied her lungs, she released Regina’s face and sat back down on the couch.

“Man. That’s gonna end up getting me twice as high as you. Let’s try you lighting it for yourself. Maybe it’ll help you with the timing if you’re in total control. But this is cashed, let me repack it.”

Regina welcomed the break. She was still reeling from the “shotgunning”, which was officially her new favorite thing in the world.

Once Emma had packed the bowl, she took one more hit so that Regina could study her. Regina watched intently and then took the bowl into her own hands. She lifted it to her mouth. She lit it and inhaled, moved her finger from the carb, and inhaled again. She coughed again, but not so much this time.

“Good! You’re totally getting it!” Emma was delighted to see that Regina was actually catching on and even more delighted when she realized that Regina was beginning to seem high.

“It feels like my head is swimming. But not in a bad way?” Regina had a look of confusion.

Emma laughed. “Hit it again.” Regina did. She was able to take deeper breaths this time.

“Am I doing it?” Regina was like a child looking for Emma’s approval.

“Yeah, you are! High five!” Emma lifted her hand toward Regina and was met with a weak slap. “Okay, we’ll work on that next. Take another hit then hand it over. Then we’ll watch a movie.”

“What’re we gonna watch?” Regina stood up and wobbled over to the dvd case. “It’s hard to walk now!” Emma couldn’t help but laugh at everything Regina said. She had never seen Regina drunk, but she was sure that this was pretty close. No, probably better.

“I brought a few movies actually. I have Wet Hot American Summer and The Big Lebowski.” Those were some of her favorite movies to watch high.

“I wanna watch Frozen!”

 _Oh my god, she IS a child_ , Emma thought. “Okay, princess. Put it in.”

“That’s what she said! And I’m a QUEEN, not a princess!”

Emma lost it. Did Regina even know what that meant? “I thought you were a little more refined? That’s what you told me once. Direct quote.” 

“Maybe I lied. Do you want some cookie dough?” Regina flitted into the kitchen, seemingly getting used to walking under the influence. She returned with a tub of cookie dough and a spoon. She dipped the spoon in, ate a bite and then extended the spoon to Emma.

“I fed you weed, now you have to feed me cookie dough!” Emma opened her mouth wide.

Regina, without missing a beat, scooped out a bite of dough and dropped it into Emma’s mouth. “Eat up, baby birdie!” Regina sat down the cookie dough and picked up the bowl again. She successfully managed to light it for herself a few times.

“Do you wanna build a snowman?” Regina was singing along loudly enough for Emma to hear. Emma giggled, but Regina actually had a pretty good singing voice.

“You know, you don’t sound half bad.” Regina looked up at Emma, shocked that she had been heard.

“Thank you. I used to love singing when I was little, but my mother discouraged me.” Regina’s eyes looked like she was remembering something unpleasant.

“Hey,” Emma put her hand on Regina’s shoulder. “Don’t go there. Stay here with me. I think you sound beautiful. Your mother was obviously crazy.”

Regina’s eyes filled up. “Shit, what did I say? I’m sorry, Regina. I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s okay. It’s just. You’re being so nice to me lately. I’m not used to it. I’m not used to having…” but Regina couldn’t figure out how to end the sentence. What were they?

“A friend?” Emma offered up one suggestion, but could tell that it wasn’t the one Regina was thinking of. “A best friend!”

Maybe Emma didn’t feel the same tension that she was feeling, Regina thought. That was okay, though, because she just said they were best friends. It was true; Regina had never had a real best friend before, and at least it let her be close to Emma. She’d take what she could get.

Looking over, she saw that Emma was actually watching the movie. Regina moved a little closer to her and laid her head on the Savior’s shoulder. As they watched, their hands steadily crept closer to each other until Emma’s was on top of Regina’s. Emma rubbed the top of Regina’s hand with her thumb before interlocking fingers. This felt kind of nice. The mayor’s hands felt soft and strong. Neither of them knew how it happened, but they were both glad that it did, and neither of them moved for the rest of the movie.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the italics are Emma's text messages, the bold is Regina's

The next day, Emma sat at the station thinking about holding Regina’s hand. She was hoping that Regina would want to do it again tonight. The smoking, of course. And maybe the hand holding. “Hey, a girl can dream.” She thought aloud. She pulled out her cell phone to see if she could give fate a nudge.

_Hey BFF! Do you want to hang out again tonight?_

**Yeah, I’d like that. You can pick the movie this time.**

“Damn, Gina. Were you waiting by your phone?”

“I was, if you must know.”

Emma swung around, shocked and slightly afraid to hear another voice in the station, of which she was supposed to be the sole occupant on a Saturday morning.

“Regina? What are you doing here?” Emma was worried. Was she about to get the ‘I made a mistake’ speech?

“I just wanted to thank you.” Since she had turned over a new leaf, Regina had been trying harder to express her gratitude.

“For what? Teaching you how to smoke weed?”

“Well, not so much that…I’m talking about the things you said. For being my friend. And for comforting me.”

Was that all it was? Comforting a friend? Emma obviously felt the vibes Regina was giving, but maybe she didn’t mean it like that. “Yeah, no problem.”

“So see you tonight? My place again?”

“I’m off at seven. I’ll come right over.” Emma smiled. At least Regina hadn’t totally turned her away, which she was sure was going to be the case. She’d take what she could get.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> italics are thoughts

Emma wished that she had time to go home and take a shower, but she so desperately wanted each and every moment with Regina that she could get before she’d have to leave to go home. As she pulled into the driveway, she was definitely wishing she had spared 20 minutes and opted for the shower.

Regina opened the door. “You knocked this time. I’m so proud. And your clothes. You washed them and didn’t dry them? Why are you soaked?”

“It’s not that bad. I just got a little sweaty during a foot chase today. Caught the guy, though.”

“It’s kind of bad. I smelled you coming up the driveway.” Regina smirked.

_Damn, lady. Way to make me feel like a piece of shit._

“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I was only teasing. Would you like to take a shower, though? I have some pajamas you could throw on.”

 _Can she read my mind? Regina, if you can hear this, nod your head._ Nothing happened. _Thank God._ “Sure. I’d feel a lot better after a shower.”

“You want to hit this first?” Regina pushed the bowl into Emma’s hand.

“Aw, you packed it! My girl is growing up.” Emma patted Regina on the back and then took the bowl from her. ‘My girl’ Emma repeated it in her head. She could get used to that.

Regina led Emma upstairs to the en suite bathroom. “I’ll leave the clothes on the bed.”

While Emma was still in the shower, Regina came back into the bedroom. Emma had closed the bedroom door, but had left the door between the bedroom and bathroom open. She hated when the shower would fog everything up and it made putting clothes on damn near impossible. Regina didn’t seem to think anything of it, though, because she promptly slipped her skirt off and walked over to her top drawer to retrieve some pajamas for herself. Emma had stopped cleaning herself and was now staring through the cracked open shower door at Regina. She took her shirt off and reached behind to unsnap her bra.

Emma sharply turned. That was too far. She shouldn’t have looked as long as she had, but at least she drew the line, right? She finished up her shower and waited until she heard Regina leave the bedroom to step out.

Emma bounded down the stairs and over to the couch where Regina was smoking.

“I want to try to…shotgun you. That’s what it’s called, right?” Regina waited for Emma’s answer.

“You’re already high. Give me that, I need to catch up.” Emma swatted for the bowl.

Regina yanked it away. “Come on, I want to try it. I might need to do it to someone else one day. You know, if I’m teaching them.”

“Fine.” Emma sat down on the couch. “Let’s see what you got.”

Regina took a big hit. Emma was impressed. Regina sat down the bowl and put her hands on Emma’s face, as Emma had done to her the night before. She pulled Emma’s face toward her own. When her mouth was close to Emma’s, instead of blowing the smoke out for Emma to inhale, Regina planted her lips softly on Emma’s. She exhaled.

Emma’s voice was screaming inside of her head. Was this an accident? Did Regina slip and get too close? Emma inhaled the smoke. Regina’s tongue was in her mouth. If it were truly an accident, Regina was really fucking up.

Regina pulled her mouth away from Emma’s, but remained inches from her face. “I saw you watching me,” she whispered.

Had Regina’s voice dropped an octave? It was suddenly deep and sultry. “I…I’m sorry, I just turned around…and the door was open, I didn’t mean.” _Shit. Shit shit shit. What have I done?_

“It’s okay. I thought it was hot.” Regina kissed Emma’s lips again. At that moment, there was a knock on the door. “Who the hell could that be at this hour?”


	6. Chapter 6

Regina opened the door to find Maleficent standing on the other side. “Can I help you? It’s 11 p.m.” Regina barked.

Maleficent waltzed past her into the living room. “Yes, um. I thought we were going to tend the community garden today, but I stopped by and everything had already been harvested.”

“It was done almost two weeks ago so that the vegetables could be sold at the farmers market. Why are you suddenly interested?” Regina was annoyed that Maleficent had interrupted her brief spurt of confidence.

“Perhaps I should talk to Emma alone about this?” Maleficent wasn’t sure that the mayor would understand her dilemma, but Emma, being of this realm, had probably smoked, if not grown, marijuana before. Surely she wouldn’t judge.

Regina left the room and Maleficent came closer to Emma. At once, she noticed the bowl and lighter sitting on the table. “Wait a minute. Did you two…?” She shook her head in amazement. “The mayor and the sheriff blazing it together on the weekend.” Maleficent couldn’t even be angry because she was too amused. “How did you convince her to smoke it?”

“It apparently exists in the Enchanted Forest, she just doesn’t know that it’s illegal in many parts of this realm. I haven’t had the heart to tell her and I’m honestly not sure how I’d explain it, anyway.” Emma also didn’t want Regina to be mad at her. No, she wanted Regina to keep kissing her, and anger would certainly stand in the way of that.

“Explain what?” Regina came back around the corner.

“Regina…there’s something that I’ve…not been totally honest about. I feel really bad about it.”

“Go on.” Regina braced herself.

“So you know that we have this plant in this realm, but I failed to tell you that in this country, it’s illegal in most places. That’s why I was so shocked to see that you had a ton of it, and even more shocked to learn that you knew how to harvest it.” It was all flowing out of her now. “I thought it would be funny to get you high. I’m so sorry.”

Regina looked into Emma’s pleading eyes, but she felt so betrayed. “Well? Was it funny?” She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes.

“Gina,” Emma put her hand on Regina’s arm. Regina wanted to pull away, but she also wanted to never move from that spot. “You were funny. But I was laughing with you, not at you. And you were other things, too. Not just funny.”

“Um. This is my cue to exit. I’m just gonna take a bit of this for my troubles” Maleficent picked up a Ziploc of marijuana. “It was mine to begin with, anyway.” She turned on her heels and bolted for the door.

Emma had never looked away from Regina. “You just loosened up so much. You were the you that I’ve seen in glimpses, just before you catch yourself and reel it back in. You were raw and honest. You were funny and cute. We were philosophers and comedians and YOU were SO sexy.”

“Well the weed will do that, I suppose.” Regina wasn’t buying a line of whatever it was Emma was selling.

“No, Regina. The weed didn’t do that. You did that. You are all of those things and more. The weed…all it did was relax you. It helped you to let your walls down. You must have wanted that in the first place.” Emma hoped she was right.

Regina had a matter of seconds to decide between bursting into tears and going back to kissing Emma. She chose the latter. The two collapsed onto the couch, where they remained, in various positions, until morning.


	7. Chapter 7

Regina awoke with her head on Emma’s chest and her hand in Emma’s hair. And her back…Holy hell, what had happened to her back?

“You okay?” Emma had woken up and must have seen the pained look on Regina’s face.

“Yeah, I’m just too old to be sleeping on a couch.”

“Well, to be fair, you didn’t do a whole lot of sleeping.” Emma winked at Regina.

Regina put her head back on Emma’s chest. Minutes passed.

“Em? I have to ask…”

“Anything. What’s up?” _Here it comes. Here it finally comes. The ‘mistake’ talk. Fuck._

“I’m your girl now, right? Like…do you want to be my girlfriend?” Silence. _Fuck, I came on too strong. I’m moving too quickly._

“Gina?”

“Yeah?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”


End file.
